I was reviewing the notes from the latest Mozilla developers meeting this past Monday (2007/01/29) and noticed some exciting news in the Thunderbird section. Besides announcing Thunderbird 2 Beta 2 being released last Wednesday (2007/01/24), there are now over 100,000 folks using the Beta 2 since its release. Even more encouraging, they are “on track” for an early March release for Thunderbird 2. If you are interesting in trying out(at your own risk) Thunderbird 2 Beta 2, you can get it via the OSU Open Source Labs FTP server (select your OS below): Windows, Linux or Mac News Source: Mozilla…

As is typical with Firefox/Thunderbird releases, the release date for Fx 3.0a2 has been pushed back. Earlier I had indicated it was tentatively scheduled for January 29th. Per the notes from today’s Firefox 3 Status meeting Gecko 1.9a2 (Minefield)/Firefox 3.0a2 (Gran Paradiso) are scheduled for release now on February 7th. Tree closure and code freeze are schedueled for February 5th. Permalink

I am sure a lot of folks have been wondering what happened to the Fx 1.5.0.X to 2.0.0.X Major Update feature. Many people thought it would be included with the Fx 1.5.0.8 build as that was released a couple months after 2.0 came out in October. Then there were rumors it would be in the 1.5.0.9 build giving users the option to go directly to the 2.0.0.1 build. After some hunting around (was actually looking for info on the upcoming 1.5.0.10/2.0.0.2 releases) I came across some information about the Major Update. For the most part, the Major Update is done,…

The release of Fx 1.5.0.10 & 2.0.0.2 had been scheduled to occur on February 1st, however due to three critical blockers this has been delayed. The developers hope to have these bugs fixed either today or tomorrow with a release candiate by the end of the week. The new targeted release date is going to be around February 15th. News Source: Mozilla Wiki >> Weekly Updates 2007/01/29 Permalink

New at the Mozilla Store, Firefox Crop Circle Hoodie. Designed by Alex Polvi, a member of the Crop Circle creative team. The Hoodie is in navy featuring the original image to make the 220-foot Firefox crop circle along with the text “Aliens Prefer Firefox”. Each sleeve also has a splotch of wheat chaff. Also features a ‘kangaroo’ pocket on the front and draw string hood. Available in Large and Extra Large and are $50 each plus $2 shipping (within the US) per order. Firefox Crop Circle Hoodie Permalink

Note: The below directions apply to Firefox 2 or older. More updated directions canbe found at The Firefox Extension Guru’s Wiki. Here is a neat little trick to open the Add-Ons and Download Managers into the sidebar instead of a new window: From the Bookmarks Menu, select Organize Bookmarks Click the New Bookmark Button In Name field enter what you want to call this bookmark (Add-Ons or Downloads) In the Location field copy/paste the appropriate address below: Add-Ons: chrome://mozapps/content/extensions/extensions.xul Downloads: chrome://mozapps/content/downloads/downloads.xul Check the box: Load this bookmark in sidebar Click OK To make it even easier to access the Add-Ons…

Some folks have asked what happened to the “Get Mail” button that use to be in the older Firefox 1.5.0.X builds. For reasons not really clearly stated the developers opted to remove the button in Firefox 2. However, with the Get Mail extension, you can have the icon back. The extension works with Firefox 2.0 and newer. One word of warning this extension may not display correctly if you are not using the default Firefox theme. If this is the case you may want to inform the theme offer and see if they can provide icon support. 06/21/07: Link has…